Tuesday, January 28, 2014

If you read
this blog with any regularity you will know the subject matter is fairly
random. Life tends to be fairly
random. This post is fairly random. But I find the topic very peculiar and extremely fascinating. Maybe you will too.

We’ve had
this angelfish since she was a baby the size of a quarter.Now from fin tip to fin tip she measures almost
six inches.Recently we noticed her lips
had gotten really large – it happened very gradually, so we didn’t think too much about it until I started looking at them, considering that it was odd, and wondering if
she could even eat.When we actually
started watching her she didn’t even attempt to nab any food.She just looked at it longingly as it drifted
past her in the tank.Ok, I made the longing
look up, but I’m sure if a fish could look longingly, she did.And I call her “she” because I can’t think of
her as a “he”.Angelfish and ladybugs
are alike in this way.You know half of
them are hims but you still call them all hers.

I went to
google, tapped in “angelfish lip growth”, and started reading about “lip
fibroma” which must be at least somewhat common.One person commenting mentioned surgery to
cut off the growth, and I thought he must’ve been crazy.Then I started reading more stuff where
people said it was the only option if you don’t want your fish to starve to
death.Reading all this was a
mistake.Actually, it was the reading
this right before bed that was a mistake.I couldn’t sleep after that and could only think about how it would
really work to do surgery on our fish.Fascinating and nerve wracking at the same time!

The next
morning I set out all the “instruments”.I’d read that the growth was hard, and you would need a very sharp
scissors. The fish should be in a shallow pan of water. I’d also read that covering
the fish with a wet cloth was a good idea so it wouldn’t flop around and couldn’t
see the scissors coming.I thought that
sounded logical.

Nathan
caught the fish and I proceeded to snip.The growth was like a lightly boiled cauliflower and I was able to cut
most of it off quickly.We put her back
in the tank and she seemed fine.In a
few days she was eating again and looking very happy.(Again, the happy look is mostly my own imagining.)

The trimmings.

I fear there
may be another surgery in our future though, since it looks like what was left
of the growth is coming back again. Maybe
this time my hands won’t be shaking quite as much!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

So last week’s
“Polar Vortex” was brought some good things…
I’m not a huge fan of winter, but there are certain things you can’t
experience without it! We don’t often
get the chance to dig the skates out, but the pond was good and solid for a
little bit last week. And so one morning
the school work got pushed back and the farm work got put on hold for a morning
while the ice was still hard.

The old skate box had a few small pairs of skates that stayed on the girl’s feet with several pairs of socks (after we dumped the chewed up mouse trash out of them).You can make most anything work when it’s your first ever chance to skate!The girls were excited!

As a Flower of the Field

As for man, his days are like grass;As a flower of the field,So he flourishesWhen the wind has passed over it, it is no more,And its place acknowledges it no longer.But the lovingkindness of the LORD is fromEverlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,And His righteousness to children’s children,To those who keep His covenantAnd remember His precepts to do them.Psalm 103:15-18

About Me

I’m a person. Just a normal person. Is anyone really “normal”? We are so unique! We all have our distinctive personalities. We have the story that is our life, and only we know it. These things make us into who we are. But then again, we are all the same at core. Our cultures, our lifestyles, our dreams, our very lives are different, but we are all humans.
I started this blog not to be about me, but to be about life if that makes sense. And the only life I truly know is my own in all its ordinariness. So maybe in the end it is kind of about me, but I hope it is more than that. I hope it is a glimpse of something more. Something true and real that each of us, at our core (where we’re the same) are longing for.
So who am I?
I’m a wife to Nathan, a man who is worth my respect.
I’m the mother of two beautiful little girls who bring me joy.
I’ve begun the homeschooling journey where the joys and trials are abundant!
Photography is one of my passions as is likely obvious.
My truth and life is in Jesus Christ and He is the reason that I live.